1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hardware and/or software configuration of computer systems, and more particularly to identifying known problems or issues with the configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growing deployment of computer system and software, applications often operate in distributed, heterogeneous environments. Processing in a complex system may be partitioned across network segments, CPU clusters, and storage locations. The configuration of a complex environment may impact many Quality of Service (QoS) factors such as reliability, availability, and serviceability. Also, due to the severe time constraints imposed by rapid deployment, and the increasing pressure from customers on suppliers to provide solutions correctly out of the box, quick identification and resolution of system configuration issues may be critical.
Numerous problems may arise while attempting to identify potential issues with the system configuration. The oversight and management of systems, especially in a complex networked environment, may rely heavily on the knowledge of system administrators and/or experts from the system service provider(s). In an effort to utilize a repeatable process derived from that knowledge, checklists, operational procedures, or other similar documentation may be developed. These types of documents may rapidly become obsolete, especially in cases of new product releases that may require modification to the documents. Unless proper notification and release of the modifications are made, documentation users may actually apply outdated knowledge resulting with undermining the use of a repeatable process. Such manual checklists and procedures may also be inefficient to utilize.
Additional problems may arise while attempting to accommodate release or maintenance of system products and technologies. The procedures used to install or verify system configuration may vary from one system to the next based on a number of factors. For example, the complexity of the network environment or the knowledge level of the individual performing the install or verify, may impact the process. Consistency and reliance on a repeatable process may not be achieved, further increasing the risk of system failures and/or unacceptable maintenance issues. Furthermore, the process may be resource and training intensive based on the different variations of configuration.
A computer system may have many different components that need to work together correctly for the system to operate properly or optimally. For example, disk firmware should correctly interact with an operating system and the operating system should correctly interact with applications and other components. Thus, there may be numerous layers of components configured in a computer system. The management and product support of these layered components may be very complex and often involves manual inspection, manual verification and other manual operations.